'apostles' Tagged Posts
Daily Devotions
When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing.” vs. 39 Acts 8:36-40 Jesus had twelve disciples but Luke doesn’t say much about the majority of them in his Acts of the Apostles. The Acts stories are mostly about Peter, John and Paul–and Paul wasn’t even one of the Twelve. But the story Luke tells about Philip is a gem. Out…
Daily Devotions
For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we had been eyewitnesses of his majesty.” vs. 16 2 Peter 1:16-18 When Peter and the other apostles began to proclaim the gospel throughout the Roman Empire, they were regularly accused of just making stuff up about Jesus. The Jews and pagans who were their audience likely thought that these new teachings were an adaptation of…
Daily Devotions
The apostles said to the Lord, ‘Increase our faith!’ The Lord replied, ‘If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, “Be uprooted and planted in the sea,” and it would obey you.’” vss. 5-6 Luke 17:5-6 On the surface the demand sounds reasonable. It’s the sort of thing we might have said to Jesus–it might even be the core of our daily prayers: “Lord, increase our faith!” Often we imagine that…
Daily Devotions
But Peter and the apostles answered, ‘We must obey God rather than any human authority.’” vs. 29 Acts 5:27-32 The religious authorities hadn’t gotten rid of their Jesus problem by killing him. In fact the movement, in the days following the crucifixion, blossomed anew, only this time there wasn’t just one leader, but many. And they were uncontrollable, preaching and teaching in the temple, healing the sick, doing exactly the same things that Jesus had done. And when ordered to…